Or could it be that it's exactly this sort of reflexive government-bashing that makes it easy for the general public to elect fools and charlatans? After all, if government is the problem, why would people bother electing representatives who take governing seriously? Heck of a job, Brownie.
The current form of government allows people to elect charlatans and fools. That's not because the population is stupid. On the contrary, a democratic system required the population to be unusually educated & informed, while always deciding to vote in our long-term interest. In other words, the democratic system requires the impossible.
Our civilization relies on extreme specialization and deep division of labor, not that everyone knows everything.
Regardless, I think your thesis is false. A lot of the powers we've taken away from government lately (regulation of financial services, regulation of financial markets, regulation of campaign contributions) have made us worse off, and specifically have made it easier for RIAA to buy legislation like this.
Regulatory capture means that regulatory framework aren't necessary free of corruption. It just means we ought to be smarter how we devise regulations or lack thereof, as sometime doing nothing is better than corporations gaining control of the law.
If anything, the government are in bed with the bankers.
The current form of government allows people to elect charlatans and fools. That's not because the population is stupid. On the contrary, a democratic system required the population to be unusually educated & informed, while always deciding to vote in our long-term interest. In other words, the democratic system requires the impossible.
So you would rather live under an absolute monarchy? An enlightened dictatorship? Oligarchy? Theocracy? Which form of government, extant or extinct, would you prefer over the western democratic republic?
We were supposed to have one of those, but the Constitutional limitations seem to have atrophied. See, for example, the overuse of the "Interstate Commerce Clause"; the rotting of the 10th Amendment; Kelo, Raich, and so forth...
As long as we're fantasizing, why limit to extant or extinct governments? Do you think a clean slate government design wouldn't be a huge improvement over any government ever present in the world?
Your parent post is absolutely correct about the major flaw in a democracy, and despite your insinuation, this is not, I believe, an unfixable problem.
>Do you think a clean slate government design wouldn't be a huge improvement over any government ever present in the world?
The problem with every "clean slate" redesign I've ever seen is that it runs into bootstrapping issues. If bootstrapping a new form of government was so obvious or easy, it'd have been done by now.
By "bootstrapping issues" you mean that the people in power aren't in a hurry to give it up, right? Obviously they're not and that's why I used the term "fantasizing". :)
The current form of government allows people to elect charlatans and fools. That's not because the population is stupid. On the contrary, a democratic system required the population to be unusually educated & informed, while always deciding to vote in our long-term interest. In other words, the democratic system requires the impossible.
Our civilization relies on extreme specialization and deep division of labor, not that everyone knows everything.
Regardless, I think your thesis is false. A lot of the powers we've taken away from government lately (regulation of financial services, regulation of financial markets, regulation of campaign contributions) have made us worse off, and specifically have made it easier for RIAA to buy legislation like this.
Regulatory capture means that regulatory framework aren't necessary free of corruption. It just means we ought to be smarter how we devise regulations or lack thereof, as sometime doing nothing is better than corporations gaining control of the law.
If anything, the government are in bed with the bankers.